Papal support for Italy's March for Life
May 23, 2011
“My thoughts go out to the large group of the Movimento per la Vita (the pro-life movement),” Pope Benedict XVI said at his Sunday Regina Caeli audience on May 22. The Pope praised the Italian pro-life movement for “concretely supporting the culture of life.”
May 22 saw the 2nd national March for Life in Italy. Last year’s initial event had been part of a 3-day event, co-sponsored by other pro-life and pro-family groups, culminated on May 22: the anniversary of the date in 1978 when “Law 194” legalized abortion. This year a number of organized joined in co-sponsoring the March, which is patterned after initiatives in other countries, most notably the annual January 22 March for life in the US.
The demonstration began in St. Peter’s Square and led down the Via della Conciliazione and the Corso Vittorio to Piazza Navona. There participants heard speeches by Carlo Casini, the president of the Movimento per la Vita; Mario Pirvano, the organizer of the March; and Marie Meaney of Heartbeat International. The marchers also heard recorded excerpts from a speech in which Blessed John Paul II referred to the pro-life movement as a “holy cause.”
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